Upset Green Lynx – Super Picture! Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 10:46 PM
Hi Daniel,
This time I am proud to say I identified this spider with the help of your site and bug guide! This Green Lynx (Peucetia viridans) was protecting her egg sack and extremely wary of my photographing her. I have been captivated by her appearance and the fact that this is the first time I have seen this species! I hope you find this photoghraph as spectacular as I did and add it to your already fine collection of Green Lynx pics.
Tom
Southeast Georgia
Green Lynx Spider protects her Egg Sac
Hi Tom,
Wow, what a wonderful image of a Green Lynx Spider being maternal. We are thrilled to post your image. The Green Lynx Spider is, after all, our favorite spider.
¶
Posted 11 October 2008
§
Spiders
‡
°
Male and Female Spider Near St Louis, Missouri
I found these two in a concrete cistern that I converted to a storage area. It has an abundance of crickits in it. I took these pictures in June. The female has an egg sack and allowed me to get quite close to take her photo. The male was more cautious and would move away when I got too close. They are about 5 to 6 inches across. I have never seen anything this size or color in the area. What are they?
JFCisme
Aspenhof, Missouri
Fishing Spider with Egg Sac
Hi JF,
Your photo depicts a female Fishing Spider in the genus Dolomedes. Because of the maternal care they provide, this family of spiders is known as Nursery Web Spiders. At some point, after carrying the egg sac around, the Fishing Spider will select a good location and spin a large nursery web. We actually believe both of your photos are of female Fishing Spiders.
¶
Posted 21 September 2008
§
Spiders
‡
°
Isabella Tiger Moth eggs, etc
Hello Bugman.
I just found your egg page and I absolutely love it! I thought you might like these photos of Isabella Tiger Moth laying eggs and the resulting larve, otherwise known as Wooly Bear Caterpillar. She laid the eggs on my door jam, and I am rearing them, at least until fall. They overwinter as caterpillars so I won’t try to keep them all winter. They are eating nettles.
Betsy
Hi Betsy,
We hope you will continue to provide us with Isabella Tiger Moth, Pyrrharctia isabella, metamorphosis images as the caterpillars grow and pupate.
baby mantids, toe biter, and painted lady butterfly
Hello! First, I’d like to let you know that my kids and I are huge fans of your site! My four year old son, in particular, is quite the insect enthusiast and loves to look at the photos on your site. We don’t need help identifying the insects in the attached photos, but thought you might like them. We had a praying mantis egg case that hatched just this morning. It was so exciting to wake up and find hundreds of adorable baby mantids waiting for us! I took a couple of photos before we released them into our garden. I’d also ordered some painted lady caterpillars, which the kids and I raised and had a lot of fun observing. I took a photo of one before we released it, also this morning. Finally, yesterday I took the kids to a local park where we caught this incredible toe biter. We’d only ever seen them in books, so we were thrilled to observe a live specimen. Thanks to your site, we know it’s a male with the eggs cemented to his back. We gave him a couple of tadpoles in case he gets hungry, but so far he’s left them alone. The toe biter got to spend the day at preschool with my son, and after dinner we’re going to take him back to the park. Our question is, can a toe biter fly when he has eggs stuck to his back? Thanks so much for the amazing site! We’ve all got our fingers crossed that at least one of our photos makes it onto the site. You don’t want to disappoint a four year old, do you? We know you’re really busy this time of year–keep up the great work!
The Ganino Family
Ps We live in Connecticut, near the shoreline!
Dear Ganino Family,
The problem with using strictly common names for identification purposes is that they tend to overlap. Your Toe Biter is in the genus Belostoma, smaller individuals than the more commonly submitted larger Lethocerus species. The Lethocerus do not cement the eggs to the back of the male like the Belostoma do. Males cannot fly while the eggs are being carried about.
¶
Posted 19 May 2008
§
‡
°
its laying eggs
It laying eggs on my parents fence. I was told it is called a leafcutter, but I cannot find it anywhere online.
Since you did not tell us where in the world your parent’s fence is located, we are reluctant to go any further than to say this is a Katydid in the family Tettigoniidae. It is a great photo, and we will see if Eric Eaton and identify the species.
Hi, Daniel:
The katydid laying eggs is an angular-winged katydid in the genus Microcentrum (if it was photographed in North America), or a closely-related genus. Nice image of oviposition behavior!
Eric
I took those pictures in El Cajon, California. Sorry about forgetting that info. Thank you for writing back to me.
Joe
Update: (07/03/2008) Katydid IDs from Piotr Naskrecki
Hi,
I have been looking at the page with unidentified katydids (Katydids 2), and thought I could help with some ID’s. From top to bottom they are: Angle winged katydid – Microcentrum rhombifolium
Ocean City MD
I found several of these washed up on the beach in Ocean City, Maryland at the end of December, 2007. Can you tell me what it is?
Mo Riddle
Hi Mo,
Though it isn’t a bug, we couldn’t resist posting your image of a Mermaid’s Purse, a very lyrical name for a Shark Egg Case. We are not sure of the species, but suspect it is a Dogfish. The Monterey Bay Aquarium website states: “Some sharks package their young in leathery egg cases, then abandon them at sea. Nourished by their yolk-filled egg sacs, the young sharks, called pups, develop on their own. After several months, one edge of the case comes apart and the tiny sharks emerge, alive and swimming. Occasionally egg cases wash up on beaches before the sharks inside can hatch. Beachcombers may know the pillow
¶
Posted 31 December 2007
§
‡
°
gulf fritillary egg
If you’d like to complete your documentation of the gulf fritillary life cycle, here’s a photo of its egg.
Tim
www.wildlifetheater.com
Hi Tim,
Thanks so much for completing our Gulf Fritillary Metamorphosis entry.
¶
Posted 09 December 2007
§
‡
°
Please help!
I have a big female spider living outside my house. It has attached itself to the back of the house. She has three sacs now. This morning I found her and the third baby sac on the back screen door. I don’t want to harm the spider but rather relocate it, BUT I really want to know what kind of spider it is. Please find the attached pic. I hope that you can help. Thank you.
Charlotte
Suffolk, VA
Hi Charlotte,
Your letter doesn’t really indicate why you feel it is necessary to relocate this magnificent Argiope aurantia who found an ideal location for her nursery. Argiope aurantia has numerous common names, that are sometimes confusing, like Garden Spider, Black and Yellow Orbweaver, and Golden Orbweaver. She can and will bite if provoked, but she is not a threat to you or your family.
¶
Posted 02 October 2007
§
‡
°
eww-theca
greetings bugman! here for you i have a picture of an ootheca which you i thought you might like to put on your ‘eggs’ page. when i first found it i had no idea what it was, and was touching it way more than i would’ve had i known what creature it came from! gross. after searching ‘brown egg case’ a picture came up that sent shivers down my spine, for it was of the ootheca still attached to its mother roach. i understand roaches are important for the environment, but that didnt stop me from throwing it over my neighbors fence. they’ll probably find their way back to me anyway, they always seem to. thanks!
ps- sorry about the cat hair!
Thank you so much for adding to our archive with your awesome Cockroach Oothica.
¶
Posted 27 September 2007
§
‡
°
lacewings, I think
Hi, I just found these eggs on my trampoline net, and thought that was a funny place for someone to lay eggs! I think they are lacewing eggs, from your informative site. I lose track of time on your website; I love it!
Enjoy
Emily
Hi Emily,
You are correct. These are Lacewing Eggs. Lacewings lay their eggs on the silken stalks because the predatory larval Lacewings, called Aphid Lions, are such ravenous eaters they will devour their siblings that hatch later. If you think you loose track of time on the site, just image the time we loose browsing through all the wonderful letters and images (and some considerably less that wonderful) while trying to decide which letters will be posted each day.
¶
Posted 22 September 2007
§
‡
°
Well its only been about 4 hours since I took a photo of them and sent it. But checking on them at lunch time gave us a surprise, they were hatching. So I grabbed 4 or 5 different types of tree leaves to put in the cage. Do they need water?? or is the leaves enough. I really want the little guys to have a chance or turning into those beautiful Imperial moths.
Karen Maier
PS let me know if u want any more photos as they grow or if you have enough of that type. dont want to send any you cant use.
Hi Karen,
These are not Imperial Moth caterpillars. Ed Note: August 30, 2009. We do believe they are some Giant Silkmoth. We fear you misidentified your original moth. BugGuide has an image of a newly hatched Imperial Moth, and it does not look at all like your caterpillars. We cannot identify your specimen from this hatchling image. We suspect this is still one of the Giant Silk Moths. If you describe the moth, we may be able to identify it. It would be great if you could take a photo at each stage of development, known as instars. Each time a caterpillar molts, there is a new instar. There are five instars before pupation. You caterpillars will fulfull their water needs through the leaves they eat. Thank you for noting in your photo title that the eggs hatched after four days.
Sad Update
(08/16/2007)
Im sorry to say that all of our babies died. Im not sure why, I gave them the leaves from the tree they came from and a few others too. but they just sat around and didnt seem interested in them. and by today they were all gone. I wish we could of found out just what kind they were.
Karen
Ladybeetles Laying Eggs & Ladybug larve.
I thought these could go on the Bug Love & Carnage page… or on your ladybird page… I live in Boise, ID, and my neighbors had a frenzy of ladybug activity on an aphid infested plum tree. Too cheap to buy ladybugs for my own yard’s pests, and not wanting to use poison, I captured about 15 ladybugs and kept them captive in a large glass vase. I fed them aphid covered leaves from my garden, and the ladybugs kept mating and mating, laying eggs and more eggs, which hatched into hungry little larve which went outside on the plants when they got big enough.
It was fascinating to watch and to nurture these bugs, and photograph with my new camera that does Super Macro shots. Here’s where I’ve got some more of these shots stored. http://picasaweb.google.com/EmilyTheChef/BugsMay2007 Carnage… tiny ladybug larve sucking the life out of of a juicy aphid. Most of the larve were all black, with tiny specs of red, but a few of them were “blonde”, like the bottom larve in this picture. They’re on my finger. I have to put the object directly in front of the lens, practically touching it, for it to be in focus. This next one is so cool… varying stages of ladybugs hatching. · Some still yellow goo (may not have ever hatched- I don’t remember this particular set of eggs, I had probably about 20+ sets)… I read that the larve will eat the un-hatched eggs to sustain themselves until they’re big enough to eat bugs. Some still encased in the egg (I knew the egg bunches would hatch soon because they turned from yellow to white) and Some actually popping out of the egg. I couldn’t even see all the detail with my eyes, but the Super Macro sees very close up! They’re so tiny when they’re hatched… they look like a speck of ladybug poop, until they start to move. And where it all started (well, it really starts with bug love), a Ladybeetle laying eggs. I felt kind of weird watching their intimate moments, but it was amazing! Most of the time, theyd lay in nice neat rows & bunches, sometimes it was willy nilly. Next year I’ll get some photos of the pregnant bugs. You can totally tell which ones are about to lay eggs, because can practically see the yellow eggs through a thin membrane, and their shell looks like it doesn’t fit when they’re about to lay their eggs…
Emily Sullivan
Hi Emily,
Just for clarification, our Carnage page is reserved for insects who are killed unnecessarily by humans. Your Aphid eating Larvae belong on our Food Chain page. Bug Love is for mating only, and egg laying would go to our Eggs page. Your images are positively fabulous and the body of your letter should be a lesson in organic gardening. Thanks for your wonderful contributions.
¶
Posted 12 August 2007
§
‡
°
rss
